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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2018 13:18:15 GMT
As opposed to feature-length films?
In casting a new adaptation of The Age of Innocence in another thread, I thought that I might prefer to see it on Masterpiece rather than in a cinema...
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Post by stephen on Mar 23, 2018 13:25:58 GMT
Depends on the novel.
For instance, there's no way that one could readily adapt The Stand into a single feature film and effectively capture the sheer epic scope of the novel. This is a major reason why Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one of the great adaptations of our time, as I didn't think such a story could be condensed down to a single film, as I feel like even the Guinness miniseries had to parse things down a bit. But Straughan and O'Connor masterfully distilled it to the barest essence and managed to maintain fealty to the novel. Nothing felt underdeveloped.
But then, there's also no reason to stretch something out to miniseries-length if it doesn't require it. At that point, you're just padding for time.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2018 13:44:49 GMT
Depends on the novel. For instance, there's no way that one could readily adapt The Stand into a single feature film and effectively capture the sheer epic scope of the novel. This is a major reason why Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one of the great adaptations of our time, as I didn't think such a story could be condensed down to a single film, as I feel like even the Guinness miniseries had to parse things down a bit. But Straughan and O'Connor masterfully distilled it to the barest essence and managed to maintain fealty to the novel. Nothing felt underdeveloped. But then, there's also no reason to stretch something out to miniseries-length if it doesn't require it. At that point, you're just padding for time. Curious - do you have a preference between the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice or Joe Wright's 2007 film adaptation? I think they both work incredibly well, but for very different reasons. I do think Scorsese's take on Wharton's novel would have worked better as a miniseries... Ax the narration. |
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Post by stephen on Mar 23, 2018 14:06:20 GMT
Depends on the novel. For instance, there's no way that one could readily adapt The Stand into a single feature film and effectively capture the sheer epic scope of the novel. This is a major reason why Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one of the great adaptations of our time, as I didn't think such a story could be condensed down to a single film, as I feel like even the Guinness miniseries had to parse things down a bit. But Straughan and O'Connor masterfully distilled it to the barest essence and managed to maintain fealty to the novel. Nothing felt underdeveloped. But then, there's also no reason to stretch something out to miniseries-length if it doesn't require it. At that point, you're just padding for time. Curious - do you have a preference between the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice or Joe Wright's 2007 film adaptation? I think they both work incredibly well, but for very different reasons. I do think Scorsese's take on Wharton's novel would have worked better as a miniseries... Ax the narration. I prefer the 1995 version. Joe Wright's historical films don't really do it for me, although they are pretty to look at. Even so, the '95 series could've done with a bit of tightening. You could probably have done the whole thing in four installments rather than six and not really lost anything of worth. There's not a whole lot about The Age of Innocence I'd want to see explored that Scorsese didn't already portray, except I could always do with more Miriam Margolyes. |
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Mar 23, 2018 14:15:41 GMT
A miniseries is better if the goal is to make as close to a complete one-to-one translation of the novel as possible, but that may not always result in the best product. Some novels were helped in their translation to film by stripping away a lot of ancillary details and focusing and expanding on the core characters and themes (Jaws might be the shining example here) while other novels have such grand scope and intricate detail that it's pretty hard to imagine chipping away swathes of the book without completely butchering it (The Dark Tower).
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Post by Ryan_MYeah on Mar 24, 2018 0:56:12 GMT
Depends on the story, but generally I prefer film to miniseries, simply because there’s less opportunity to get bogged down by padding.
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